Design and simulation of a reliable token-ring protocol for realtime communications

The key to the successful use of computer networks to support realtime communications is an adequate set of network communication protocols that ensure not only timely but also reliable message transmission. Traditional fault tolerance techniques may become invalid in a realtime environment as the latency introduced by those error recovery mechanisms may become unacceptably high. This paper presents the design and simulation of a reliable, realtime token ring protocol. The data link layer design of the protocol provides efficient error detection and recovery, reducing the total message loss rate. The performance of the protocol is evaluated through analysis and simulation.